Blooper Reel

State Rep. Joel Kleefisch’s (R-Oconomowoc) proposal to limit child support payments – a plan benefitting one of his wealthy contributors – led him to apologize in January to none other than WTMJ talker Charlie Sykes for embarrassing Republicans in the state. But this wasn’t the former WISN-TV reporter’s first brush with scandal. We collected other […]

State Rep. Joel Kleefisch’s (R-Oconomowoc) proposal to limit child support payments – a plan benefitting one of his wealthy contributors – led him to apologize in January to none other than WTMJ talker Charlie Sykes for embarrassing Republicans in the state. But this wasn’t the former WISN-TV reporter’s first brush with scandal. We collected other gaffes and goof-ups by the lawmaker and husband of Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and rated them on our (un)patented Scale of Chagrin.

Key

Flustered

Shamed

Mortified

April 2007
As a lawmaker, Kleefisch sponsors a bill requiring sex offenders to display fluorescent green license plates. “For so long, child sex predators have been watching our children,” he says at a public hearing, “and this gives us an opportunity to watch them back.”

EMBARRASSMENT LEVEL: 1.5 for awkward use of syntax in the presence of the noun phrase “child sex predators”

JANUARY 2012
A Kleefisch bill calls for instituting a hunting season for Sandhill cranes, which he refers to as the “rib-eyeof the sky.”

EMBARRASSMENT LEVEL: 2.0 for failed legislation that makes him look like – here it comes – a lame duck

DECEMBER 2013
Kleefisch twice plagiarizes the words of three Republican congressmen in a total of two press releases hailing the Working Families Flexibility Act. To deflect criticism, a Kleefisch aide takes responsibility for the flub, then adds that all of the representatives approved the use of their quotes, retroactively.

EMBARRASSMENT LEVEL: 2.5 for offering up a sacrificial staffer

MARCH 2012
Another Kleefisch quote lands with a thud. This time, he says from the Assembly floor that “Sexuality among youth isn’t a right. In fact, it’s a crime.” Although underage sexual intercourse is indeed a crime in Wisconsin, the standard definition of “sexuality” encompasses far more.

EMBARRASSMENT LEVEL: 3.0 for crimes against diction

APRIL 1995
WISN-TV insiders tell Milwaukee Magazine that then-reporter Kleefisch was reprimanded after threatening a parking security company with negative coverage – after the firm illegally booted his car.

EMBARRASSMENT LEVEL: 3.5 for unethical and retaliatory journalism

MAY 2012
A division of the Oconomowoc-based trucking, plumbing and excavating company Herr Corp. receives five citations for overtreating fields with human waste, and Kleefisch attempts to intervene on the company’s behalf. “Why is the DNR giving Herr five citations,” he asks, “and why can’t two or three be taken away as a show of good faith?”

EMBARRASSMENT LEVEL: 4.0 for forgetting to flush

APRIL 1996
Insiders at WISN again inform the magazine of a flap involving Kleefisch. This time, station bosses scolded the reporter for failing to disclose that his own mother was a distributor for an algae diet product he promoted in an on-air report. EMBARRASSMENT LEVEL: 4.5 for dragging algae – and his mother – through the mud

JANUARY 2014
In perhaps the worst gaffe to date, news reports reveal that a top Kleefisch donor, Michael Eisenga, helped to write a bill reducing child support payments for some parents, including himself. Kleefisch blamed the scandal on “misinformation” but withdrew the bill anyway and later apologized on Sykes’ show, observing, “Perception is reality.”

EMBARRASSMENT LEVEL: 5.0 for forgetting that a politician’s job is to kiss babies, not take candy from them

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Claire Hanan worked at the magazine as an editor from 2012-2017. She edited the Culture section and wrote stories about all sorts of topics, including the arts, fashion, politics and more. In 2016, she was a finalist for best profile writing at the City and Regional Magazine Awards for her story "In A Flash." In 2014, she won the the Milwaukee Press gold award for best public service story for editing "Handle With Care," a service package about aging in Milwaukee. Before all this, she attended the University of Missouri's School of Journalism and New York University's Summer Publishing Institute.